Birds Of Prey (2020)

Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) is a pretty dumb movie, even by comic book movie standards. It is, however, made tolerably entertaining by a few things: a vivid visual style, a fiercely committed lead performance by Margot Robbie, and a script that at least knows it's dumb, and frequently winks at us.

A sequel of sorts to the much more horrible Suicide Squad, Robbie is the criminal sociopath Harleen Quinzel. She explains, in an animated prologue, that she was a psychiatrist who fell in love with a patient, namely the Joker. I was already taken out of the film, because how many women with medical degrees have voices like Lina Lamont from Singin' In The Rain?

Anyway, she and Joker have just broken up, which means there is no one protecting her, and everyone she has ever slighted wants revenge. That includes another sociopath, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) a crime boss who moonlights as a costumed villain called Black Mask. He has a henchman, Zsasz (Chris Messina) who likes to peel people's faces off. He is ready to kill Robbie but she says she will help him find a 30 karat diamond that happens to have been swallowed by a street urchin pickpocket (Ella Jay Basco).

The plot is further complicated by a singer, Black Canary (Jurnee Smollet-Bell), a police detective (Rosie Perez) and a mysterious assassin who kills her victims with a crossbow (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). All of them will team together to battle McGregor and his associates at an abandoned amusement park.

Robbie keeps things afloat with an endearing performance. She has the word "rotten" tattooed on her face, has a pet hyena, and lives above a Chinese restaurant (one of the many great sets). Unlike the WB series of some years ago, she is not strictly a villain--she mentions that she was once captured by "the Batman" but here we see her at her most heroic. She also, like all the women in this film, is an expert at hand-to-hand combat (or with a baseball bat). This is one of those films where very thin women routinely beat the crap of of men much larger than themselves. In the climactic scene, and I'm sure this is no spoiler, the women are outnumbered by about twenty-to-one but still manage to come out on top.

Directed by Catherine Yan, Birds of Prey may induce fits in epileptics, as it has frequent cuts and dazzling lights. It also has scenes that defy common sense, such as when Robbie fights her way into a police station and none of the cops thinks to draw their guns. But when it slows down there are some wonderful moments, such as Robbie's ode to a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, or when the script comments on itself, such as after Perez's dialogue, someone asks, "Does she always talk like an '80s cop movie?"

Given the sluggish box office, one wonders if there will be any more Harley Quinn pictures. I hope she sticks around, though, if only in a supporting role.